Josh Board's Blog

BLOG: Greed is Good. Tumors are Bad.

Pop Goes the Culture (8/16/10)

I saw Michael Douglas last in the disappointing Solitary Man a few months ago. Boy, did he look old.

And being a guy (a jealous one) that resented the fact that Catherine Zeta-Jones chose him (not that I had a shot at being on the top 1,000 list of suitors she had to choose from)…I snickered when the screen showed close-ups of the lines on his face.

When these famous actors hook up with young women, everyone talks about it. Jack Nicholson was dating Lara Flynn Boyle. The age difference didn’t bother me with them, but the fact that he chose a woman that looked anorexic.

I can understand a woman like Zeta-Jones picking Douglas. She was probably 15 when Romancing the Stone came out. She had a crush and…fast forward 20 years -- she’s in Hollywood, a big star, meeting this guy and…they get married.

I found it interesting at the time because Douglas was one of the handful of stars (the first, perhaps) to check himself in for “sex addiction.” It led to the divorce of his first wife. As I said at the time of him hooking up with Zeta – isn’t that like an alcoholic getting a job in a bar? Is sex addiction not a problem if you’re having it with your wife 10 times a day? Is it only a problem if you’re having it with other women? Or is it just a lame excuse for people that are caught? But I digress.

I saw commercials for Douglas’ new film Wall Street II. It doesn’t look very good, and I’m not the biggest Oliver Stone fan.

But back to the women marrying guys old enough to be their dad.

When David Letterman had a child, it made us think of these older actors that have children late in life. The usual stat we hear is something along the lines of: they’ll be 70 when the kid graduates from high school.

I always thought – what about the older guys that need to start wearing diapers, or have medical conditions? Will these young starlets want to sit around taking care of them? Yet, this is the first actor in that situation that has had something like this happen with a much younger wife that I’ve heard about.

He has a tumor in his throat and is going to undergo radiation and chemotherapy. I’m guessing for an actor, it’s probably not one of the better places to have a tumor.

The Academy Award-winner is supposed to be in treatment for eight weeks, but is expected to make a full recover.

Nobody knows where it is he’s going to be treated, but I’m guessing the paparazzi will be staked out in the parking lots, or hell…hiding behind curtains in the hospital.

I remember a friend called me when Dustin Hoffman’s brother was at Scripps Hospital five years ago. I thought about showing up, for about half a second. I realized that the last thing an actor wants to do is talk about The Graduate when he has a brother that could possibly die.

I was surprised to hear, along with this news, that Zeta-Jones had purchased a house in Bermuda 10 years ago, and that’s where they had planned to raise their two kids.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (is there a worst title for a sequel that you’ve ever heard?), opens in the fall. Let’s hope Douglas is recovered by then and is able to speak to reporters on the red carpet at the opening.

Posted by Josh Board on Mon, Aug 16th, 2010
Last updated Mon, Aug 16th, 2010

Keywords

Michael Douglas tumor Catherine Zeta-Jones Jack Nicholson David Letterman Wall Street

«	Previous post: BLOG: Two and a Half IQ Points
»	Next post: 100 Greatest Chick Flicks

blog comments powered by Disqus